I am sure this happens to a lot of you writers out there.
You just get a great idea for a blog post, or, you have an idea for a book. You eagerly fire up your computer and open the word processor to begin jotting down the first ideas, or, to get the rough draft started however so rough, when almost imperceptibly at first, as you stare at the blank page, your motivation to begin flexing those fingers and have them dance across the keys ebbs, then digressively drains away with each successive blinking of the that vertical blip called the cursor.
It is aptly called that, certainly seems like a 'curser'. You feel like every good idea and just got sucked right out of you, like some vampiric curse is draining you of your author-powers when a moment ago you were all revved up and ready to reveal your imagination and thoughts into the visible realm via the written word.
Now, trying to nail down that very first sentence let alone the first paragraph becomes an energy- sapping ordeal, your inspiring thoughts seem morphed into the strange sensation felt during those debilitating nightmares when you try to run, but your legs move with a lumbering stumble as though your were wading through a field of wet cement bogged up to your knees.
Then the doubts set in.
'Will this sound good?' 'Is this just good in my head, but will be boring to everyone else'? 'Wow, this story could take a thousand directions. Maybe I need to think about this...'
The dreaded bane of a writer next makes its presence felt – procrastination.
'Maybe I need to do more research', you ask yourself, (the internet begins to beckon....)
Worse yet, impostor syndrome. 'Gasp! Am I really a writer at all?'
Before you realize it, the ideas just don't want to come out, or, you are now unsure if it was such a good idea, and struggle to put things into a visible, legible form. You had a whole outline in your head, and here you are, staring at a blank page – for hours!
And / or, you got lured into 'doing more research', your hours spent Googling diddly-squat having fallen prey to the pretext your were being productive as long as you were researching, but basically, doing anything to escape the white brick wall you were banging your head against, hoping you just might get your elusive writer's mojo back.
The horror!
Why does this happen?
Frankly, I don't know. I wish I did. I've wasted so much time sitting staring at a screen because of this curse. But, it must be something that 'clicks off' in our brains the minute we sit down to a blank, white page, especially when writing on a computer. That's my guess, anyway.
This may not seem related, I once read an article theorizing why we tend to forget what tasks we go to do the minute we enter another room, or, go up or down the stairs. I wish I could find the article, but the gist of what I remember is, our brains are set to remember actions in specific 'patterns', and the theory was that for some strange reason, 3D shapes could affect these patterns. When we go through the rectangle frame of a door, or rise up to another level of the house, or down, we could be hitting a certain type of visually activated 'reset' switch in the brain, which then resets short-term memory. I guess it is like when our computer gets jammed and simply turning the thing on and off resets it and clears the cache. Maybe our brain gets bogged down with mundane tasks, does a bit of a stall and then resets when it goes through the door frame? Interesting concept.
I've also read articles on how colours can affect mood, productivity and spending habits, you probably have as well trying to build a website people will engage with, design an appealing book cover, or effective advertising, packaging, etc. The interesting thing I read is that certain paper colours can help you retain information you are reading, crème and yellow paper works best for this if I remember correctly. I always wondered why I liked legal pads for doodling, and crème colour book pages over white paper when reading ....
A thought then came to me – perhaps I am getting mentally closed off by just the blank white background? Starting a new blank page, even when already well into a story just seemed to halt progress on getting words out and down, some times seemed worse than others. Psychologically the plain, rectangular white block in front of me could be suggesting the 'emptiness' of 'nothing', or, the strange impression everything I write is starting from 'scratch', even when I have already progressed pages into a draft. So, it was possible the colour was also 'resetting' the brain to feel like this.
Intrigued with the idea of the brain resetting itself, and, wondering if colours could influence this during the writing process, I thought why not try experimenting with changing the page colour?
I was going into a particularly dark area of my second novel Vocation of a Gadfly when I thought of it, so, why not pick something that was matching the 'feel' of the scenes I was trying to describe and see what happens?
At that point I chose a dark grey. Yes, dark grey.
But, isn't the colour more depressing? Won't it make things worse? Hey, the scene I was working on features an half-abandoned, gruesomely nefarious insane asylum after all. No harm in experimenting ....
I didn't think it would help much if at all, it was just a change of page background, but words were coming out, the colour helped keep me in the 'feel' of things, it made it harder for the dreaded 'procrastinating screen stare' to settle. When the mood changed in the story, I did it again, switched the page background to a different colour. Creme, light yellow, tan, even light pink and sky blue, depending where the plot went. When my document program didn't have a preset colour that was 'just right' I used the 'colour picker' and played around with the rainbow of colours until I got a shade that matched the mood of the scene, or, was depicted the mood I was aiming for.
Could something so simple do the trick? Huh. I guess so. I certainly got my draft finished with less 'screen stare' getting in the way!
Now, I am sharing my little 'rainbow' draft hack with you.
If you haven't already stumbled upon this idea yourself, try it, you may be surprised. I was.
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If you like my blog, you will LOVE my books!
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